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The Core (2003) is a science fiction disaster film very loosely based on the

novel Core by Paul Preuss. It concerns a team that has to drill to the center
of the Earth and set off a series ofnuclear explosions in order to restart the
rotation of Earth's core. The Core was directed byJon Amiel, and
starred Aaron Eckhart, Delroy Lindo, Tchéky Karyo, Hilary Swank, DJ
Qualls,Bruce Greenwood, and Stanley Tucci.
Plot

Strange things are happening on Earth's surface: A number of people within


a 10-block radius in Boston simultaneously drop dead for apparently no
reason. Keyes, a geologist, and Serge, a physicist, are brought together by
Gen. Purcell of U.S. government to determine a cause for the deaths in
Boston. Keyes deduces that the people who died had one thing in common -
they had Artificial Pacemakers. He initially believes the cause to be
an electromagnetic pulse. Soon after pigeons in London's Trafalgar
Square lose their internal navigational ability and start smashing
into windscreens and breaking panes of glass. Upon seeing this news relayed
in awebcast, Keyes realizes the cause of these anomalies: Earth's core has
stopped rotating. Within a year, the Earth will lose its electromagnetic shield
and be fried by solar radiation. While he is calculating, the space
shuttle Endeavour crash-lands in L.A. A team of "terranauts" is recruited to
drill down to Earth's core and set off a series of nuclear explosions in an
attempt to restart the core's rotation. Their $50 billion journey uses a
transport made of an indestructible metal dubbed "Unobtainium" equipped
with a newly-developed "sonic laser" that can cut through rock. Meanwhile,
police storm an apartment, whose occupant, Rat, a computer hacker, races
to destroy his numerous hard drives with a large magnet whilst also
microwaving CDs of presumably sensitive material. Aware of Rat's hacking of
the FBI database last year, the U.S. government employs him to keep
classified information regarding the mission from leaking onto the internet
and causing mass hysteria. In return, he asks for an unlimited supply
of Xenatapes and Hot Pockets as they help him concentrate. Construction on
the vehicle begins in theUtah desert, while lightning superstorms appear
above the base and around the world. Rome is devastated by one such
incident with the Colosseum and Monument of Vittorio Emanuele
IIcompletely obliterated on-screen. Construction of the vehicle continues,
with various countries contributing to the effort; flags are shown,
including India, France and Iraq. However, while this is going on, Gen.
Purcell confronts Zimsky over whether a mysterious Project DESTINI was
responsible for the impending disaster; Zimsky vehemently denies this and
even states he believes DESTINI can resolve the world's predicament.
Eventually the vehicle is launched in the north Pacific ocean, above
the Mariana Trench. Twelve hours into the mission and 700 miles
underground, the crew encounter 'static' on the screen. Keyes reacts
quickly, stating that he never programmed the guidance system to recognise
empty space which is being represented as static. The vehicle drills through
the outer shell of a gigantic cavernous amethyst geode, falling under gravity
and eventually coming to a stop. The crew then attempts extravehicular
activity to free the vehicle from a large crystal embedded in its sonic laser.
They are under pressure however, as magma begins pouring through the
entrance they created. One of the crew, Bob, dies when a piece of amethyst
falls through his helmet. After resuming the mission, the crew encounters
another problem: Keyes' guidance system detects black objects in its path
which Zimsky realizes are mountain-sized diamonds. Childs narrowly avoids
them but at the last moment, the vehicle is punctured and a hull breach
occurs. Unfortunately, Brazzelton is forced to eject the damaged
compartment with Serge still inside, who dies after the compartment is
crushed under intense pressure. 1700 miles deep, the vehicle begins to pick
up speed, increasing from 90 to 130 knots in seconds. Keyes deduces that
the outer core's liquid is too thin, with the nuclear detonation unlikely to
restart the core's spin. During this revelation, Purcell and Zimsky reveal
DESTINI: a secret facility in Alaska with which they can
startearthquakes anywhere on the planet. This weapon, standing
for Deep Earth Seismic TriggerINItiative, is revealed to be the cause of the
stalling of Earth's core. While the team is underground, the world is struck
by more disasters. Huge blasts of microwave radiation from the sun break
through the atmosphere, melting the Golden Gate Bridge and frying San
Francisco. Upon seeing the devastation, Gen. Purcell decides to activate
DESTINI in case the vehicle mission fails. Rat notices this and sends a covert
message to Keyes, asking him if he can help. Keyes replies they need more
time, and to delay DESTINI (since Keyes believes that if DESTINI is
activated, it would cause disastrous consequences, like all of Earth's
volcanoes erupting, or worse). Rat attempts to remotely shut
down hydroelectric dams in Alaska but is denied by security systems.
Zimsky works out that instead of a single large detonation, a series of
smaller ones will achieve wave propagation and restart the core. They split
the bomb into fragments, and deposit them around the core inside ejected
vehicle compartments. TheVirgil can't eject compartments without them
being damaged, so Braz goes into the crawlspace at the front of the ship to
activate a gear which makes the ship capable of manual overrides. Braz
dies, though, because the crawlspace is filled with 9000 degree fluid and his
suit can withstand only half that. However, due to some miscalculations, the
final bomb needs to have 30% more energy which must be obtained from
the plutonium in the vehicle's reactor. Unfortunately, Zimsky becomes
trapped inside a compartment along with a bomb and dies as the bomb
detonates. The plan eventually works, with the core resuming its spinning.
Meanwhile, seconds before activation, Rat manages to gain access to
DESTINI and diverts power from the weapon to Coney Island, giving the
crew valuable time to fulfill their mission. As the ship's reactor is completely
drained of power, Keyes and Childs are seemingly stranded in the core,
however, Keyes remembers a property of unobtainium and discovers that
the ship's hull can be used as a "giant solar panel". Implementing this new
idea, they return to the surface of the planet riding on currents. Later, Rat
sends files on what actually happened and the now-dead "unsung heroes" to
many organizations and agencies across the world.
Cast and characters

 Aaron Eckhart as Dr. Josh Keyes, a scientist who designs the


navigation system forVirgil and is assigned as head of the project
 Hilary Swank as Major Rebecca Childs, USAF, an astronaut who
distinguished herself during an emergency crash landing of the Space
Shuttle Endeavour in Los Angeles, California
 Delroy Lindo as Dr. Ed "Braz" Brazzelton, the designer
of Virgil and the ultrasonic laser
 Stanley Tucci as Dr. Conrad Zimsky, Earth specialist and designer
of Project DESTINI
 Tchéky Karyo as Dr. Serge Leveque, nuclear weapons specialist
 Bruce Greenwood as Commander Robert Iverson, USN, Maj.
Childs' commander and mentor
 DJ Qualls as Taz "Rat" Finch, a computer hacker who is widely
regarded as the best in the world, crippled the FBI's database,
recruited to control the flow of information on the Internet to prevent
public panic
 Alfre Woodard as Flight Commander Talma "Stick" Stickley, the
mission commander for NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour and Virgil

Scientific Inaccuracies
This section may contain original research or unverified claims.

While Hollywood science fiction films often tend to bend the laws of science
in order to create a more compelling plot and keep the audience
engaged, The Core bends the laws much more than most other big-budget
films. Critics and scientists in general have pointed out multiple scientific
inaccuracies and plot holes in the film:
In geology

 The Mariana Trench was described as being in the South Pacific, but it
is actually located in the western North Pacific.
 Much of the Earth from the mantle inward is shown as liquid in the
movie; however, the only wholly liquid layer of the Earth's interior is
the outer core. Many researchers suspect that much of the Mantle is
solid, except for magma that is contained in "pockets" within
the lithosphere. However, little is known about the precise composition
of the inner Earth.
 Though most scientists agree that the rotation of the Earth's liquid
metal core is key to the Earth's magnetosphere functioning properly,
the exact mechanism is not well understood. Furthermore, it is highly
unlikely that anything short of a major cosmic impact event could stop
the core's rotation completely; in which case, a diminished magnetic
field would be the least of human troubles.
 The magma would have filled the giant geode seen in the movie in
much less time than it did on screen because of the extreme pressures
that are present at that depth.
 At the end of the movie, the ship is said to be rising between two
tectonic plates "near Hawaii". Hawaii is in the center of the Pacific
plate. There are no tectonic plate boundaries near Hawaii.
 When the ship is stuck in the geode, it is unnecessary for the crew to
stay outside of the ship once they realized that the magma could have
melted the crystals. The ship is impervious to the magma while the
crystals weren't. The magma would have melted the crystals and left
the ship unscathed.

In physics

 No matter the properties of the material, a flexible, fabric suit cannot


protect against outside pressure. Such a suit must be made of sections
of rigid shells. Furthermore, if unobtainium is the only material that is
able to withstand the incredibly high pressure and temperature of 700
miles below the Earth's surface, what material are the visors made out
of? Frozen nitrogen.
 Despite being underneath hundreds of miles of solid rock, the crew is
able to maintain radio contact with the control centre; the connection
between ship's crew and the mission control center is maintained
almost instantaneously throughout the entire operation by unspecified
means, though electromagnetic radiation that could be used for real-
time transmission at relatively short distances (outside of the Earth)
would not reach the ship. Transmitting the signals using sonic waves
would require much greater time. The control center keeps tracking
the ship in the same real-time manner, though losing it in final stage
of the operation when it seems to be captured between tectonic plates.
 No technology in existence could possibly observe the motion of the
Earth's core, realtime or otherwise. The only way to know if the core
had been started again would be to observe the effects of the restart -
in other words, the return of the magnetic field. Additionally, the
"realtime" view of the Earth's core show the shockwaves from the
nuclear explosions traveling at hundreds or thousands of miles per
second. A realistic speed would be no higher than a few miles per
second.
 The rotational momentum of a closed system is conserved. If the
Earth's core were suddenly to stop rotating (or suddenly start
rotating), the enormous change in rotational momentum would have
to be balanced by a corresponding increase (decrease) in the
rotational momentum of the Earth's crust, i.e. the length of day would
change dramatically. The transfer of momentum would also result in
earthquakes massive enough to render the Earth's surface
uninhabitable, and internal heating of the planet which would likely
produce the same result.
 The Earth's seasons would be dramatically changed as the bombs may
not be placed in a straight order. The axis would change and seasons
would differ. Changing of seasons and axis would also affect the
magnetic field even more.
 Moving closer to the center of the Earth should result in a decrease in
the force due togravity, but no such effect is shown in the movie.
 In the movie scientists say that microwaves emitted by the sun will fry
the earth. A yellow star like the sun emits a very small proportion of
microwaves compared to its visible lightoutput, and this radiation is
largely unaffected by the geomagnetic field, or the "electromagnetic
energy field" as it is called in the movie.
 The same beam of microwaves destroys the Golden Gate Bridge. The
main cables snap, the center span collapses, and the two towers are
shown leaning inward. The towers would lean outward from the break
due to the tension of the remaining cable at the ends. This is an
engineering design principle of a suspension bridge.
 The cars on the Golden Gate bridge seem to be unaffected by the
microwaves, while these same waves easily melt the bridge. In fact, it
is likely that most metal structures would either reflect the microwaves
or become electrically charged, not melt.
 A swarm of pigeons collides into buildings, cars, statues and people in
London, with the ostensible explanation that birds navigate via the
Earth's now-malfunctioning magnetic field. Such a magnetic sense,
while indeed theorized, couldn't possibly guide birds around buildings,
vehicles and people, a task for which they use their eyes (their
eyesight was not affected), though some could argue that the pigeons
were confused. The strength of the Earth's magnetic field is less than
around most power lines, and this behavior is not seen in birds
perched on power cables.
 When Iverson falls into the magma, his body would have floated on
top, not sunk, as is depicted in the movie. Even with the suit on, his
body is far less dense than molten rock.
 When Braz ventures into the crawlspace where the ambient
temperature is "9000 degrees", nothing around him is glowing (but
this could be due to the metal that Braz created called "unobtainium").
Anything at 9000 degrees (either Fahrenheit or Celsius) would be so
white-hot as to cause instant and complete blindness. Additionally, he
would have died almost instantly as the gases he was breathing would
have heated to unbearable levels. Because he stated the suits could
withstand 4500 degrees, half of the temperature in the crawlspace,
both Braz and his suit (as well as the interior of the lower level) would
have incinerated instantly. [Though the suit could have been made of
the same "Unobtainium" to a slight degree with a weave, the face
mask of the suit obviously did not and would have been the first to
melt and expose him to the high temperatures.] Furthermore, the
match Braz lights in the chamber would've incinerated from the
ambient temperature, as wood and phosphorus have autoignition
temperatures of only a couple hundred degrees, far less than the
geode's 9000 degrees.
 Braz's glasses crack under the intense heat. He would have died
before the glass was hot enough to crack.
 When the Space Shuttle Endeavor crash lands towards the start of the
movie, sonic booms can be heard as it approaches, but at this point
the vehicle would be traveling atsubsonic speeds Also, its touchdown
vertical speed appears to be 50 or 60 metres per second, which would
severely damage if not destroy the orbiter. A vertical speed of 1 or 2
m/s would be more appropriate.
 The Space Shuttle should not have been able to raise its landing gear
when on the ground - the landing gear on most aircraft is equipped
with a micro switch that detects pressure on the gear (i.e. it detects
when the wheel is on the ground), and prevents it from retracting. In
addition, the shuttle's landing gears cannot be retracted. They have to
be manually retracted once it has landed and is prepped for the next
flight.
 When the ship pierces the geode's surface and begins to fall, the crew
are thrown forward in their seats. In reality, the crew would
experience momentary weightlessness, similar to the "Vomit Comet".
 Lightning of any kind could not possibly cause buildings, particularly
buildings made of stone, to disintegrate.
 When Josh Keyes is soldering Virgil's cables to the unobtainium shell in
order to transmit the energy from the heat to the engine, he simply
fuses them directly to the interior of the hull. This would be a very
unwise move, as he is not aware of the intensity nor the tension of the
current. Therefore, the current could easily be far too intense or not
intense enough to power the ship's motors, because the electricity
would pass straight through the cables into the motors, without any
electrical resistance added, because it had not been calculated.. This
misjudgement could very well result in the destruction of the ship or
the attempt could simply fail altogether. Also, because the wires are
simply fused at random points without much distance between them,
this could create a massive short circuit and cause an electrical fire
and/or a large explosion, causing collateral damage to the ship's
interior. Of course, this attempt was experimental, and seen as a "last
desperate chance", so it is very possible that Keyes did not think his
plan through fully. However, regarding his status as a scientist and an
expert, this is unlikely.

Regarding nuclear bombs

 Five large H-bombs are used to restart core rotation, each with a
200 megaton yield. The largest H-bomb ever built, the Tsar Bomba,
was designed for a 100 megaton yield, but it was limited to a 50
megaton yield to lessen the fallout. It weighed 25 tons and was 8
meters long and 3 meters in diameter. The bombs shown in the movie
are roughly human-sized and can be pushed around by one or two
people.
 The last bomb had to be 30% larger, or another 60 megatons had to
be added to its yield. The fuel rods from the nuclear reactor (seven
kilograms of plutonium) are used as additional fissile material. Such an
amount of plutonium (Keyes lifted it around, and it was only the size
of his torso) could not generate that much explosive force. The Fat
Manbomb used roughly this amount of plutonium and had a
20 kiloton yield. Later improved bombs using this amount of plutonium
still yielded less than 50 kilotons, less than a tenth of a percent of
what was required.
 Furthermore, Keyes's approach of just leaning the plutonium reactor
core against the bomb would have done nothing for yield. For fissile
material to affect yield, it must be part of the weapon's physics
package, not placed nearby. Since the weapons in the movie were
ostensibly French, the implication would be that these would be
implosion-type thermonuclear weapons. Ergo, unless the nuclear
material was shaped perfectly and was within the explosive "crush
sphere" in the bomb's physics package, there would be no effect on
yield. The reactor core would merely be vaporized.
 The nuclear explosions depicted in the movie were roughly spherical. A
spherical explosion would produce no torque on the Earth's core, and
thus would be unable to start its rotation.
 Even with a total yield of one gigaton, the explosions would not be
nearly powerful enough to start or even influence rotation in the outer
core, which is roughly the size ofMars. The effect would be akin to
attempting to impart a current into a swimming pool using small
fireworks.
 During the preparation, it is made clear that the calculations upon
which success or failure hinged were based on 'guesses' about core
density.
 Nuclear reactors use uranium-235 at a 3-4% ratio to the uranium-238,
whereas nuclear weapons with uranium use 90% uranium-235 almost
all nuclear weapons use plutonium now. some plutonium may have
been made in the reactor but there would still be far to
few fissile atoms and far too many fertile atoms

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